Contemplation
He wipes the sweat off his neck with a towel.
The beach around them is dark. Scarce in people.
They're in the area farthest from the hotel. So all the party peeps are nowhere near them.
He can see them though. With the help of the torch stuck into the ground at meter-long intervals. Tiny humans in the distance. A crazy one throws a flare into the sea.
Fucker
He'll have to fish that out of the water himself tomorrow. Or the police will come for him.
Michael and Eddie sit on their asses on the sand a few feet away from him, facing him. Those two are side-by-side and exhausted.
Sparring with Tyson since midnight. It is three now.
All of their internal clocks are way off. Nobody sleeps during normal hours in Roppongo.
Tyson caught some sleep at noon so he's wide awake now. His friends fell asleep at other odd times of the day as well.
Kenny has his laptop out. Trying to find a way to beat Kai with Math or something. Tyson doesn't understand what he's doing but the tips and info he'd given him about Kai so far has been terrifyingly accurate.
Kenny had observed Kai while he was fighting earlier and he'd noted something important. Kai went for the opponent's arms first and then he used his strength to twist them however he wanted in order to keep the opponent immobile.
"He goes for the arms. Keep your arms away from his hands. You can't overpower him, Tyson. As much it hurts to know, he is stronger than you. Much stronger. He put Sergei on his back and held him down. It won't take half that with you."
"Thanks"
"It's the truth." Kenny sighs. "You are quicker though, and a fast learner, so use that while you're fighting."
Tyson rubs his eyes. "I know. I feel more confident now than I did today morning. I'm not a complete loser, ey?" he prompts Mike and Ed, who grumble he is not.
They've been flipped and tossed many times by him. They're traumatized. There's sand denting their backs.
"A'ight" Michael staggers up. "I'ma go to bed. You guys comin'?"
"Yeah" Eddie follows him.
Kenny shuts his laptop and says to Tyson, "I think you're ready."
"I think I'm ready too."
"Your techniques and attacks have gotten better with each round. You also seem to have better balance than you did today morning."
Tyson grunts. "That balance could be fucked when I see Kai," he says when his other friends are out of earshot. He massages an ankle with a thumb. "My head's clear now. I feel calm. Cool. In my element."
Kenny listens to him patiently.
"But the moment I see him?" He shakes his head. "I'm gone."
"You spent half the morning with him today. After you promised me you'd stay away from him."
Tyson nods. Eyes still on his feet. "I wanted to talk to him about us. Tell him it's over for good."
"You weren't talking to him. You were playing with him. You took him up to your room. What happened there?"
"I don't remember." He lifts a shoulder. "Kai told me I tried to kiss him but that was all."
"You tried to kiss him?" Kenny asks in alarm. He observes Tyson for a minute. Then he asks softly, "Tyson, are you in love with him?"
"What?" he asks irked, his tone insinuating Kenny's question was ridiculous. "No"
"You sure?"
"Yes, Kenny. If I was in love with him I would've had sex with him already." His lips curl in annoyance, directed both at himself and Kenny. "I went to him to ask for a rematch. I was trying to get him to agree to one. It wasn't easy."
"What did he want in return for a rematch?" Kenny inquires astutely.
Tyson takes a deep breath, raising his eyes to the starry sky and lets it out in a heavy sigh. "He wanted me to go on a trip with him. For three days."
Kenny straightens his spine in shock. He figures out Tyson has agreed to it already from the slump of his shoulders, disappointed with himself. He decides not to give him a hard time about it. "Why did you agree to it?" he asks gently.
Tyson shrugs. Cluelessly. Tiredly. "I don't know. I don't have an explanation for it. It's like what you said. I can't think around him."
"Why do you think that happens?"
Tyson shrugs again, eyeing the dark foamy waves lapping at the shore. "It's probably just the attraction."
"Do you remember being this way around Emily and Mariah too?" he asks with a tilt to his head.
Tyson thinks back to his relationships with them. He had a habit of bumping into stuff, and saying stupid things. "Yeah, I guess. But it never almost cost me my life."
The flame of the torch nearby flickers in the wind.
"It'll be fine," he says after a moment of silence. "The trip is only three days long. I can handle Kai." He gets up, dusting the back of his pants. "It just sucks that his thoughts don't get muddled around me the way mine get around him. Come on, let's go to bed." He extends an arm to pull Kenny up to his feet.
"You were in public. In full view of a restaurant. Do you see the point I'm making here?"
Kai sits at a table staring at an excel sheet full of names and numbers trying to get an estimate of the amount of money the Horsemen stole from them in the past one month.
Tala and Sergei won't shut up. They stand in the middle of the tiny room and go on and on about his meeting with Tyson Granger outside the restaurant during lunch yesterday.
Ignoring them doesn't seem to be working so he pushes his chair back from the table a little and leans back in his seat to appraise them.
They look at him expectantly. Mainly Tala. Sergei doesn't express much emotion.
"I was aware, Yuriy," says Kai. "I knew we were being watched."
"Is that why you were standing so close to him?" berates Tala.
"We were discussing a delicate matter."
"And it required you to caress his shoulder?"
"He needed to be comforted."
His untroubled replies seem to tick Tala off. He strides forward and slams a hand down on the table. "You said you simply liked having him around," he hisses. "You said you just wanted a fuck. Why are you comforting him in public?"
Kai watches him with a muted but dangerous glint in his eye. "You're insinuating I have feelings for him."
He suspects him of having fallen for Tyson. That explains the sudden outburst. He feels threatened by him. Intimidated by the possibility of an outsider infiltrating their closely knit group. He needn't have to be. Tyson rarely crosses Kai's mind unless it has something to do with sex.
"You tested him," says Tala. "With the fireworks. To see if he had the balls to do something like that. Why?" he demands, nostrils flaring. "Why console him in public? Unless you forgot where you were? Unless you lost control?"
His icy blues blaze at him in quiet fury. He thinks he's right. He thinks he caught Kai slipping up. That he saw something real pass between him and Tyson. When all it was was paranoia. Kai never lost control. He wasn't growing flowers in his heart for the boy.
Yet arguing with Tala over that fact is pointless right now. He's convinced of the opposite. He won't believe him.
But he'll believe it soon enough.
"I don't have to explain myself to you," Kai replies coolly.
Tala clenches his jaw, breathing heavily through his nose. Then his eyes shutter. A blank mask sliding in place. He removes his hand from the table top, straightening his spine. "For your sake and for all of ours, I hope I'm wrong," he says, before turning around and leaving the room.
Kai's gaze follows him to the door.
When he's gone, it returns to Sergei, who is still lingering near the sofa.
"You look like you have something to say," prompts Kai.
Sergei shifts weight on his feet. Taking time to phrase his sentences properly. Kai waits.
"I thought I saw something," he says at last, his eyes refusing to meet his squarely.
Kai remains silent.
He continues when he doesn't get a response. "When you were telling us to go on at the restaurant. When I turned around to look...you had your hand on his back. For a second or so. King saw it too. You looked like a...couple."
Kai considers him with a slant to his head. He picks up the pen on the table and fiddles with it. "That was for Tyson, Sergei," he explains. "He gives more weight to my affection in public. It had nothing to do with my feelings." He lets go of the ballpoint, it clatters briefly against the table when it falls out of his hand. "Who I take to bed is none of King's business. Tell Tala to get a good night's rest. He seems like he needs one."
Kai closes the laptop and rises to his feet.
"Where are you going?"
"I have to pick something up," he says, opening the door and pocketing his keys. "I won't be long."
Sergei grunts.
The fucking door of the washing machine won't shut.
Tyson checks its sides to see if something's lodged in the crevices preventing it from shutting properly.
There's no such thing as far as he can see.
He tries to close it one more time. Slamming the door of the front loader hard.
It goes in!
Yay
He stands up with a sigh and checks his messages when the phone pings with an alert.
03:32 Ed, Edd and Eddie: Tyson, what the fOck? Jedi Kung Fu master/ PLAYA?!
What? He frowns. There's a photo beneath the text. A photo of him and Julia kissing at the amusement park earlier.
03:32 Ed, Edd and Eddie: U r da gr8est. I bow down to thee.
Holy fuck. Someone took a picture of them? He ransacks his brain. It's gotta be Queen. It has to be. She was in the vicinity when he was talking to Julia.
The angle from which the photo was taken matches too.
But shit. This thing is going to spread like wildfire.
He's biting his nail and pacing back and forth in front of the washer when he hears footsteps behind him.
He turns around quickly to see Kai walking in. He puts his phone away immediately.
Kai's eyes fall on him. There's a brief flicker of surprise at seeing him there at this hour. Then it passes and he brushes past Tyson toward the dryers on his left.
Wow. Not much interest in him when he's tired, huh?
He snorts almost imperceptibly softly.
Kai opens a machine and closes it after scanning the contents inside. He crouches to open another one. And drags a grey sweatshirt out of it.
Tyson jerks his gaze away when Kai rises and turns to glance at him.
He crosses his arms and leans against the washer, tapping an inaudible tune against his elbow with his fingers as Kai goes to the vending machine and swipes his card.
There's a buzz of the machine rejecting the card.
Tyson sneaks a look and notes he's using the black one.
Yeah. It's not going to work.
He directs his gaze to the washer in front of him and listens to the sound of the machine rejecting him over and over again.
Tyson suppresses a laugh.
Kai's standing in front of the snacks and beverages separated from him by a glass trying to figure out what's wrong with it when Tyson says, "I have loose change."
Kai turns to look at him.
"The machine usually accepts cards," he explains. "There must be something wrong with it. Why don't you try the change?"
"Okay" says Tyson.
He walks over and inserts a coin. The options light up. He chooses a packet of potato chips and one tumbles down to the slot. Tyson takes it out. "It works" he says, whirling to face him. Kai's leaning against one of the washers, arms folded. His hair's wet, like he recently took a shower. It's hanging over his forehead and he's clothed in a midnight blue hoodie with some lettering on his chest and a pair of white stripes down its long sleeves. He seems to be on low energy. "What do you want?" Tyson asks.
"A Red Bull" he replies, without looking at him.
Tyson inserts more coins and presses the button for the energy drink and waits for it to be delivered.
"Not sleeping tonight?" he asks Kai in a casual tone.
He gets a shake of his head in response. He seems to be chewing on the inside of his bottom lip. They're slightly pushed out as he stares out of focus at the ground and contemplates about god knows what.
Tyson's gaze lingers on his mouth. It occurs to him that he's seen Kai walking around at odd hours of the day. He often slept late. And on nights he went to bed with Tyson he remembers waking in the middle and finding the bed beside him empty. He also recalls a couple instances of Kai dozing off in class. And that one time in the evening when he'd almost missed their study date because he had unknowingly fallen asleep.
Does he have insomnia?
It seems like a possible explanation for Kai's bizarre relationship with sleep and rest.
The Red Bull clatters as it arrives at the dispenser.
Tyson bends to retrieve it and hands the can to Kai, who accepts it and pops it open. His gaze rises to meet his with a lift of his brow.
"You don't have to pay me back," Tyson says quickly. "It's just a drink."
Kai's eyes remain on his for a second before he gives him a nod and a low "thank you". He raises the can to his lips.
His mobile keeps buzzing with texts. Tyson grits his teeth as he opens the bag of chips and takes his phone out to turn the notifications off.
He catches sight of the 103 messages alert on his screen and his eyes widen in horror before stuffing the device back in his pocket.
Jesus Christ, he kissed a girl. What's the big deal? Everyone's kissing each other in Roppongo. Hell, everyone's having sex in Roppongo. Why is him chastely touching lips with Julia for three fucking seconds such a huge shocker?
When he looks up, he sees Kai's gaze is on him. Trailing up from his pocket.
"It's just...my friends." Tyson flashes him a smile.
His gaze scorches through him for a moment. Burning everything in its path. Then it falls away, a slight smirk hiking up the corner of his mouth.
Does he know? Tyson panics. Did he see? It's unlikely.
Then he wonders why he's panicking. It's not like they're still in a relationship. It's not like he jumped from one relationship straight into another either. He simply kissed her. He kissed Julia to try and forget the taste of this bastard's in front of him.
He can still remember it. As vividly as if he was kissing him right now. The coffee. The smoke. And the distinct taste of something Kai. And he remembers it because he was never just kissing him. He was fucking devouring him.
Snatching parts of him away from himself.
Like he wanted to strip Tyson from his own body and make it all his. Consume him whole.
Till he was left with nothing.
Till he didn't possess anything of himself.
And Kai had it all.
Tyson licks his lips. Trying to chase the taste of Kai's mouth out of his because all of a sudden he was flooded with the memory.
He places a potato chip on his tongue.
Kai straightens from the washer, drawing the grey sweatshirt off its top. "I think your clothes are done," he says. Tyson's gaze jumps to the machine at the end of the row. It's beeping. He wipes his hand on his jeans before rushing to his clothes.
"I'm off" Kai makes his way out of the laundry room. Red Bull and sweatshirt in hand.
"Bye!"
"Bye"
A/N: DO NOT COMPLAIN! DO NOT COMPLAIN! LAST CHAPTER WAS SEVEN THOUSAND WORDS LONG. YALL SPOILT. YOU WILL MAKE DO WITH THIS FOR THE REST OF THE WEEK.
SHUSH. NO ARGUMENTS.
That being said, we will probably see more than 40 chapters. Since I'm fucking with the word count again. What was that? I said 40? I also said we might see more. *strains ear to hear you* I'm acting like the word count is not under my control? That's because it is not! I can't write whenever I want. Okay? The words come on their own. It's not a conscious completely voluntary process. I don't have full control over this.
Now, it's time to thank people. That is you. You are people. Thank you for reading. Thank you for leaving wonderful comments and feedbacks. It motivates me. It inspires me. It's what compels me to keep going when I want to just say "fuck it, I cant write!" and drop the story. So thank you. I hope you enjoyed. I will see you soon.
Shoutout to all queens and legends. New and old. Keep rocking.
